National Disability Coalition (Winter 2015)

National Disability Coalition:

A Forum for All Interested Disability Stakeholders

Revised question, please respond by Friday, December 19, 2014

QUESTION

How can we better determine whether the medical condition(s) of an individual with a disability has improved and is no longer disabling? For example, are there specific medical conditions we should review more frequently or other factors we should specifically consider?

DIRECTIONS

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At the Social Security Administration, we feel that engaging interested parties in a public forum can help us capture innovative ideas, ensuring that our vision for the disability program continues to keeps pace with advances in medicine, science, technology, and the modern workplace.

We are committed to developing responsive policy to empower individuals with a disability, and to minimizing financial hardship in accordance with the statutory guidelines of the disability program. We do this by continuously seizing new opportunities to improve the accuracy, consistency, and timeliness of our disability decisions, as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of our determination process.

We would like to hear your ideas for improving our disability programs. Please review our question below and take a few moments to share your thoughts, read what others have written, and vote for your favorite ideas.

Career ACCESS pilot programs will be created by changes in federal policy aimed at significantly increasing the employment rate of people with disabilities by expecting young adults with disabilities ages 18 through 30 to work. CareerACCESS will provide required support and services recognizing that disability benefits are offsets to the high costs of disability rather than subsidies for the inability to work.

Voting

We submit these comments as Co-Chairs of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Social Security Task Force. The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) is a coalition of national organizations working together to advocate for national public policy that ensures the self-determination, independence, empowerment, integration, and inclusion of the 57 million children and adults with disabilities in all aspects
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Submitted by Community Memberin Dec 2014

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As the parent of a young adult with autism who just began receiving SSI, I was eager to participate in this discussion, but I have no idea what the question is asking. "Identify individuals with medical improvement as the earliest opportunity"? I don't know what that means. I work in the disability field and asked a number of colleagues if they understood what was being asked. Only one of them even offered a suggestion
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Submitted by Community Memberin Dec 2014

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In my work for the Vermont Disability Determination Services (DDS) and for National Council of Disability Determination Directors (NCDDD), I have heard various ideas related to the question of medical improvement and continuing disability review (CDR) processing. I will describe some of these ideas below for the purposes of this discussion. Please note that neither NCDDD nor the Vermont DDS has taken an official position
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I understand that when a disabled child is awarded a large amount (6mo.+) it must go into a dedicated account. That is only to be used for medical or educational. And you must get permission from SSA before the funds are used and must submit proof of purchase. I get that.
But it is not fair to still force the same rules for the dedicated account, once the child become 18 and is deemed an adult disabled child.
The SSA.gov
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I think people/adult disabled children with autism should not have to be redetermined over and over. If it was proven as a child and then again at 18. That should be enough proof for life.
Autism is in the brain, the brain does not change. No one has ever stopped being autistic. As the autistic person ages, the disability does not improve. They require more care and more assistance as they age.
I think if they have
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If completed organ transplant information is available that can then be cross checked against individuals receiving benefits, request medical updates within six months or one year post transplant if appropriate given the type of procedure..

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A non-profit, private/public or government solution to enable disabled households some type of financial relief to help pay for their dependents school needs (school pictures, graduation dues, books, school supplies, haircuts, gas money (for vehicle to transport the dependent if family has vehicle already), hygiene needs, sports gear for high school/college, etc.) Financially stressed and disabled households are suffering
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Submitted by Community Memberin Nov 2014

Voting

Determining which SSDI applicants could or could not work under myriad medical conditions, an improving and expanding range of assistive devices, shifting labor market conditions, and changing social and legal environments is becoming increasingly difficult. This, naturally, leads to an imperfect disability determination system and several studies suggest that SSDI allows many work-capable individuals onto the system.
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